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Valve: Plenty still want singleplayer

Is multiplayer going to make singleplayer experiences extinct? Valve says no, that "makes no sense". There are "plenty of people" who enjoy offline play.

To cite piracy as a downfall to singleplayer is a "pretty crazy analysis" says Portal 2's Erik Johnson. Not everything must be a "competitor in multiplayer".

"I still think the analysis that every product needs to be a competitor in multiplayer, or an MMO, is incorrect; there are a lot of people who want an experience without the stress, so I don't see that changing," said Valve's Erik Johnson, Portal 2 project manager.

"You brought up piracy being a reason to not do single player, which I think is a pretty crazy analysis on an issue like that," he continued.

"That's making a decision for your customers about the types of products you are going to build without, by definition, including your customers in that at all."

"You're saying that because of these pirates, you get no single player experiences, which makes no sense to me. If there are as much players that want single player experiences, you should go build that. I think there are plenty of people that still want to have single player experiences." RPG developer BioWare is a huge singleplayer supporter.

"One thing to think about is, when we are building a game like Half-Life 2 or Portal, monetisation is a separate thing that, in the context of the game design, doesn't make a huge amount of sense, really," added Johnson. Portal 2 releases on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC next year. It features co-op puzzles to solve - they ditched competitive.